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Nope, I’m not mad about it! MAC’s latest launch of makeup primers is…unsurprisingly, all about primer, and yeah, it’s one of those releases comprised of re-promoted stuff (same products, new boxes).

Of course, there will be the usual hemming and hawing about this, but since almost all of the items in Makeup Ready Skin are things I’ve used and loved for years, I repeat: I’m not mad about it. There are things in this release that deserve the extra attention.

Also, I’m aware that there are peeps out there in Makeup Land who don’t see the point of primers. I can appreciate that… There are lots of makeup “must-haves” that I find totally unnecessary, but I don’t feel that way about primers. I love ’em. I think they make a huge difference in terms of wear time and how smooth my skin looks (especially in pics) when I use them.

Q: How many bottles of this setting spray have I used over the years? A: So many. I even take a travel-sized one with me when I travel.

Fix+ is the first AND last thing I use whenever I apply makeup. As soon as I sit down, I spritz a few sprays all over my face — psst, psst! The light mist moisturizes my skin and dampens it, getting it ready for everything else I put on (lotion, primer, whatevs). It helps the next products I use absorb better than they do when my skin is dry.

Then, after all is said and done, I spray Fix+ again at the end of my rigmarole when I finish my last blend, usually right after the powder products. I do it to lock everything down and take the edge off any powdery-ness.

Another underrated primer I love. MAC has two versions of it — yellow and pink — and even though I’ve used both…I really can’t tell the difference between them on my skin from an arm’s length away.

I mean, if I really get up in there with a magnifying mirror, sure, I can see tiny pink bits of glitter in the pink one, but they’re both fab. One pump moisturizes my combo skin and smooths out my pores enough to be noticeable.

Fancy packaging

FYI, Natural Radiance doesn’t minimize pores as aggressively as UD Optical Illusion or Make Up For Ever’s primer (the one in the gray tube). I think of it as more of an everyday look, so if you like natural-looking skin as much as I do, it could be a good fit for you.

This lightweight primer smooths pores to a greater degree than Natural Radiance, and it also mattes down the skin to hide shine. I like to use it on areas that I don’t want to be super dewy, like the center of my forehead.

“Captivate with a lip colour hybrid that’s glossier, higher coverage and harder impact than ever before. Its watery-light formula glides on creamy and comfortable to impart long-wearing, saturated full coverage and an always-fresh wet finish. Find entrancement in its 12-hour, intense staining power – promising to last far into the day and night.”

When they go on, they’re VERY pigmented and shiny. It’s like, BAM! — color and shine. And that goes for all of them.

Over the next 10 minutes or so they start to feel thicker — almost like a liquid lipstick — and fade into a stain.

Even though I’m more drawn to the dark pinks and reds in the collection, I think the best shade of the whole bunch is rosy nude Bitten Babe because it doesn’t stain my lips unevenly like the other colors do to where I get a dark or bright spot in the middle of my lips, which then fades into a lighter stain toward the edge of my lips.

I guess that’s a high fashion-y lip look, but I’m partial to evenly stained color, a la Bitten Babe, which I’ve been wearing a ton. It starts as a glossy, rosy pink but turns into a nude pink stain by midday, where it lasts for about four hours.

Fresh coat of Bitten BabeAfter two hours…

More deets…

They aren’t particularly moisturizing or drying…so they’re somewhere in the middle in terms of moisture.

Unsurprisingly for MAC, they smell like vanilla, and I don’t detect a flavor.

The mega influencer/YouTuber/all-around “It Boy” is launching yet another collab with MAC, and it’s pretty intense for a holiday collection. There are five lipglosses, three lipsticks, a huge over-sized Mineralized Skinfinish that’s almost as big as my head, a translucent loose setting powder, two eyeshadow palettes and three pigments, and the whole shebang drops December 3rd.

Va-va-voom!

Patrick Starrr’s known for bringing the glam, so there’s lots of sparkle, shine and cheeky innuendo. The products have names like “Shady Santa” and “Ride My Sleigh.”

I just swatched the collection and took a few things out for a spin while I returned almost all of the clothing I bought on Black Friday… Side note: The jig is sooooo up. I officially loathe shopping for clothes because apparently I’m terrible at it now and can no longer dress myself without professional help. ARRRGHHHH!

I did, however, keep this $10 scarf from Old Navy, which happens to go with the rose gold eyes I wore using Patrick’s Oh Holy Eyes palette.

Eye Shadow X 6 in Oh Holy Eyes: Swatches smoothly and intensely, but when the shadows are applied dry, they’re sheer on my lids. The shimmers are pretty frosty, too, so I had to buff like crazy to take the shine down a few notches.

Pigment in PatrickStarrr: Fine shimmer? I like!

Mineralize Skinfinish in Baby Its Gold Outside: Intense and frosty.

Lipstick in Spank Me Santa: A smooth, opaque, WEARABLE rose

Dazzleglass in Twerk for Gifts: Surprisingly subtle glitter that isn’t gritty. Love this as a layering gloss for nudes and pinks.

Set Powder: Completely translucent (no flashback), but very, very matte.

Wearing: the MAC Girls Palette in Raver Girl and Lipglass in Bracelets Galore

I’m an NC42, and I’m in my 40s, and the last rave I went to was on New Year’s Eve in 2001 (OMG!), but I still have a thing or two to say about all of the purples in the new MAC Girls Raver Girl Palette, Lipsticks and Lipglasses, which I took for a spin today. Raver Girl is one of three new MAC Girls mini-collections.

First question: What does purple have to do with raves or raving? Is it an influential color among dancing kids? Back in my day (she said, immediately dating herself), it was all about dayglow everything and massive quantities of glitter.

If you’re a young whippersnapper, would you please break it down for me? I’m genuinely intrigued.

I recognize that this could have been user error, because I’m out of practice wearing dark colors in my crease, but I feel like Rave-Cave and Wild Card, the dark purples in the $41 Raver Girl Palette, aren’t easy to blend out. I used a pencil brush to apply both of them in the outer corner and within the crease on my hooded lids to deepen my eyes, and then I feathered the edges with bright purple 120 BPM.

Some parts ended up looking less blended and patchy than others. In the future when I wear this palette — and I will wear it again because I do like it, even with my blending issues with the darker shadows (which, like I said, could just be a matter of me needing to practice) — I’ll stick to using those shades as liners.

It’s weird, but it seems like every time MAC comes out with a new batch of MAC Girls products they change and evolve the formulas, because they get better and better with each new iteration. The last batch of Girls palettes were just messy and kicked up so much powder, but that didn’t happen this time with Raver Girl. I experienced hardly any fallout or messiness from the Raver Girls shadows at all, and the mid-toned and lighter colors were a breeze to blend, which was great!

The Raver Girl Palette, Lipsticks and Lipglasses

I was worried that the purples in Raver Girl would irritate my sensitive eyes, because my eyes would water all day long when I wore older versions of the Girls Palettes (especially ones with purple), but I mushed and smudged dark purple Wild Card like BAM-BAM-BAM on my upper lash line and had no problems with it. And I REALLY got in there, man.

Bottom line: Raver Girl is good — like really, really good — and if the other two palettes (Smarty Pants and Pretty Punk) are of similar quality, this will be the best batch of MAC Girls yet.

There are also two Raver Girl Lipsticks and two Lipglasses (sold separately from the palette), and I feel silly in all of them except hot pink Bracelets Galore gloss. The others are a tad too frosty and too much on the corpse-y side of purple for me, and I just can’t pull them off. If you have a serious edge to your look, you can probably go there better than I can.

Swatches on NC42 skin along with some quick first impressions of the three new MAC Girls palettes, which are out right meow.

Three new girls just joined the MAC Girls family, and guess what? They’ve got accessories! This time around MAC made matching lipsticks and glosses to go with the eyeshadow palettes.

I’ve still yet to test drive these on my lids and lips, but here are some swatches and thoughts on the Raver Girl, Smarty Pants and Pretty Punk palettes, lipsticks and glosses.

Price is now $41 for the Girls Eyeshadow Palettes. Last spring they were$39.50. $18.50 for a Lipstick (same price as the permanent collection lipsticks) and $17.50 for a Lipglass (also same price).

Lipsticks and Lipglasses have packaging that matches the palettes, cute! All of them have the usual vanilla MAC flavor and scent, and I wonder if MAC’s gonna add lipsticks and glosses for the other Girls palettes, hmm…

Initial arm swatch thoughts? All three palettes have a sensationally soft, almost creamy texture, much like Risk Taker palette from last March. I haven’t tried them on my lids (yet), but I hope they don’t kick up too much dust, which was an issue with Risk Taker…